No Matter What, I Care
by Melissa Norvell
Summary: ONE SHOT. Iruka is sad and Sakura wants to help, as long as she sees him happy,nothing else matters, right? IrukaXSakura. Please R&R!


**A/N: Odd pairing time! This was originally a song fic, but I took out the lyrics due to strict banning of song fiction. So, if you want it in it's original fashion, go to my mediaminer account. **

**Do be nice to me, I'm doing an unconventional couple and I tried very hard to make them work.**

**Any commentary on this fanfic would be nice.**

**No Matter What, I Care**

**An IrukaXSakura fanfic.**

**By: Melissa Norvell**

A small hand tightly clenched a frail, brown autumn leaf. Standing alone in the field, a pair of piercing green eyes scanned sorrowfully over the fields of green, riding on yellow with the change of the season.

A tiny hand unclasped to let the brown leaf sail into the wind. Just then, the 15 year old heard a voice from behind her.

"Sakura, what are you doing out here alone?" Naruto asked.

The pink haired girl whirled around."Hi Naruto, nothing really." She smiled a kind smile at her team mate.

The blonde boy looked bored, letting out a heavy chested sigh." I'm getting sick of all these D rank missions we've been going on lately." He moaned.

The pink haired genin made an exasperated face. "Me too."

"Hey, want to hang out with me later?" He asked. Sakura's face fell. Sasuke. She shook her head from side to side, as if to say no.

"That's ok Naruto. I have things to do." Sakura told him in a falsely happy voice and then took a few steps. Soon afterwards, she stopped and waved over her shoulder. "Bye Naruto!"

The blonde ninja in training waved a bit confusedly back to his team mate, of course, he could never understand. He saw him as a brother figure and sensei. Sakura headed off towards the school, when she got there, she sat slowly on the swing, and held one of the lines with one hand, and sat the other on the seat and gently rocked back and fourth, thinking of him.

Her thoughts, as of recently, were focused almost entirely on the chuunin. Ever since she had seen how kind he had been towards Naruto.

"Iruka-sensei." The green eyed girl pondered to herself. " I wish you were happier."

There had always been something deep within his soul, something even her charm and kind demeanor couldn't change. The pink haired genin couldn't seem to figure out what he had always feared. She couldn't assist him. With Sakura, not being able to keep and have the ones you deeply cared for was the worst thing that could possibly ever happen to someone. Because of this, she wanted to help him. She glanced over to the spot where he always stood when he was out and about, out waiting for her and the other students to come pouring into the academy. He fit in. It was like he belonged there and lately, Sakura missed it. It had torn her heart out to see him absent from that spot in so many weeks. It ripped her heart to shreds when she heard that he was going to be absent for quite a while.

Only now, very slowly, it had been mending, but she knew it wasn't something she could change. Now that he was gone, she could see that he was hurting. He was changing back to what he had been before. A broken, introverted and sorrowful individual. She didn't want him to feel miserable.

Silently and carefully, Sakura made her way around the school. She didn't want to disturb any of the other students, as to not cause question. The genin wanted to see him. She wanted to see him so badly that her heart wrenched in pain with every steady beat. Sakura knew, or was fairly sure anyway that if she spied on him, he would never forgive her. He would probably want her to disappear and never come back. The pink haired ninja in training didn't seem to mind, just as long as she helped him and saw him one last time. She'd be fine with that.

She made her way to an open field a bit off from the school. Everyone knew he was there, but no one else ever went anymore, because it seemed like there was nothing they could do to help him rid his sadness. Glassy green orbs pierced their way through the bushes, he was there alright.

He had fallen asleep, no doubt from total exhaustion. Sakura could tell by the way he was sleeping, leaning on the tree trunk with his legs stretched out, holding a practice sword in one hand. She rushed around through the bushed to the other side of the clearing.

She gazed at him, green pools swirling around in warm feeling for the sleeping chuunin. He was smiling a peaceful smile. Iruka looked so sweet when he was asleep like that. There was no shadow of that disheartened, stern, frowning man, that he was before when assigning missions along side of the 3rd Hokage. He just looked lost, alone and sad.

Sakura smiled painfully. She didn't wish to see this side of him. The pink haired girl wanted him to be happy. She wondered whatever could have been done to him in his youth, in his past, to make him this way.

He was a very impressionable man, she knew. After only a short time to get to know him, his attitude seemed to change. But when he was plunged back into the world, back into the twisted world of missions, he changed. He became, not what he was the few time they had talked here and there, not what he once was, but a smashed mix of the two.

Sakura reached out a hand, taking out his loosened hair tie, and gently smoothed his sweat-soaked deep brown hair. Her hand trailed down to the contours of his face and gently and sweetly caressed his cheek.

Suddenly, he jumped awake, and blinked sleepily, and a little surprised to find her face staring back at him with a hint of fear and surprise swirling around in the pools of green.

"Haruno Sakura?" He asked in confusion.

She took back her hand swiftly, as if it had been burned. She swallowed back tears.

"Iruka-sensei." She said in a voice filled with sorrow and fear, then she shook her head in disbelief. "Um…"

Iruka frowned, still confused, his voice was raspy from sleep and exercise, and his headband was damp from sweat.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, still too utterly exhausted and confused to be angry. She smiled a kind smile at him as he slowly and weakly sat up.

"I just…Wanted to…" She paused, Sakura didn't exactly know what she was doing there, "See…How you are doing: She finished,

The Chhunin frowned, then got up, taut muscles cracking from sleeping too long in an abnormal position.

"I'm alright." He replied, voice devoid of all emotion. Sakura sighed, her breath wavering a bit as she held back more tears. The pink haired girl then stood up, blinking.

"No you're not. It doesn't take a whole lot to see that." The pink haired genin finally spoke up.

Iruka turned to her as he was rubbing his neck muscles free of discomfort and raised an eyebrow. She then stood up straight.

"But it does take a lot to come in here and say it, Iruka-sensei, please don't turn me away just now. I have a few things I want to say to you, and if you never want to see me again after this, so be it."

He blinked, surprised at the edge to her voice, but he didn't say a word, just looked at her with wide eyes. Shining with an innocent gleam that she had never noticed before. Sakura could see the fear present in the brownish-black orbs. He was afraid. He probably thought she was going to tell him to get lost or that she couldn't stand him. That had been the consensus of everyone who had known him in the past. So, in his mind, no one cared and maybe she was going to tell him that she didn't care either. She gazed at him, blinking back the water from her eyes once more.

"Sensei…I care!" Sakura yelled, bursting into tears.

His eyes went even wider then before. He reached an arm out, as if to comfort her, but she stopped it, looking up at him with glistening eyes.

"No! I have to say this! I care, Iruka, I really do and I'll always care! I don't know why you are who you are, but I can't just stand around and let you be alone! I don't care if my friends think I'm crazy! I'd rather love you and be crazy then hate you and see someone be so lonely." The pink haired girl said, burying her head in her arms.

Iruka dropped the training sword in his hand and looked at her with an expression that was complete and utter astonishment. He was so surprised that anyone cared about him, and that just made Sakura sob even harder. He put one arm out on her heaving shoulder.

"Sakura…" He replied, "I thought that."

She put her hand over his.

"Well, don't think anymore. I care about you, even if no one else does and if you want me to, I'll step out of your life right now. But you have to remember, that someone cares about you. Even if that someone is just me." She told him, and brushed his arm off her shoulder, then walked towards the bushes and looked back at him. His eyes were shadowed, and he looked down.

Sakura turned, eyes still streaming with tears, and took a step through the bushes.

"Wait!" Iruka said, walking over to the bushes, muscles shaking a little with fatigue. "I think maybe I should go back to the school."

The pink haired genin repressed the urge to hug him. They walked down the path a little, separating where their paths diverged, the pink haired girl turned into the crisp autumn night.

"Sakura." Iruka called from behind her.

"Yes?" She questioned, turning. He glanced at her.

"You think, maybe we could have lunch together sometime, or take a walk?" He asked, in a wistful voice. She smiled.

"Sure, Iruka-sensei." She said, as he looked at her.

"And Sakura…"

"Yes?"

"Please, call me Iruka." He finished as she nodded, a slight blush tinting her cheeks.

A few days later, Naruto sat eating a lunch of ramen with misao with Sasuke. Sasuke was busily eating, when they noticed an amazed hush over all of the students eating lunch outside of the school. Naruto's head flew up and Sasuke glanced over.

"Sasuke, is that Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked as Sasuke nodded.

"Yes, Naruto and Sakura."

They were walking arm in arm, Iruka standing upright and strong. Ever so often, the pink haired ninja in training would stop and point out particularly beautiful blood red leaf on the trees. There was something more relaxed in his demeanor, a thing that defied explanation. Sakura was happy, but it was a different type of happy then she usually was. The happiness radiated from her, and it was real and when thought no one was looking, she looped her arm around Iruka's and smiled up at him. He really didn't seem to mind.

Naruto was confused.

"It looks like Iruka-sensei is feeling better." He said.

Sasuke just watched in silence.

Sakura smiled up at Iruka as voiced floated all around them.

"I wonder if they're together."

"Sakura is dating a teacher?"

"I wonder if that's why Iruka-sensei is feeling better now."

"I wonder if Sakura knows who she's hanging on!"

'_I wonder if he minds that I love him.' _The pink haired girl thought to herself, looking up at him with love filled eyes and seeing the half smile on his face she was glad to have made that move last night. Iruka glanced down at her, and it bloomed into a full smile.

"Iruka." She said. "You need to smile more often."

A solitary leaf floated down from the trees above, a fiery red. It landed near another plain brown one, as the wind toyed with these two leaves, the stems intertwined. They weren't alone anymore.

As Iruka leaned down to plant a gentle kiss on Sakura's lips, the two leaves blew past them, and Sakura got her answer to her thought.

**THE END**

**A/N: There was my odd couple challenge. I hope I did a good job at this. Please give me a review and tell me what you think.**


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